Glamorgan’s 2nd XI will be taking part in their first ever T20 finals day at Arundel on Thursday, 15th August, after they qualified by finishing 2nd in the South Group with a record of eight wins and four losses.
They will take on Nottinghamshire in the opening game of the day, with play starting at 10.30am. Updates will be available on our Twitter channel @Glamcricket, or via the NVPlay website.
Led by coach Steve Watkin, the 2nd XI’s performances have been the epitome of a team effort, with eight players scoring over 100 runs each, and the wickets have been shared out with only two players in double-digits for the season so far.
“I’m very proud of the squad,” said Watkin. “It’s really been a team effort. We’ve played something like 30 odd players over the course of the season, but we’ve had a core group of guys that have played most of the games and they’ll probably be the same guys who play on Thursday.
“It’s great to reach finals day, as we’ve never done it before, so I’m really looking forward to it.
“We’ve used lots of different tactics throughout the season – there’s no real set magic formula. If we’ve got a first team player, we use him where he would be used in the first team. It’s just about executing as you do in any form of cricket.
“We ask the players to do the basics well, and that's easier said than done. Executing your yorkers and slower balls when necessary. We’ve managed to come through the group stages and finished 2nd, so we’ve done those well.”
Kazi Szymanski led the wicket-taking charts with 15 with an average of 11.80, while Prem Sisodiya took 11 wickets with an economy rate of 5.64 to establish themselves as leading bowlers in the side.
“Kazi’s got a lot of wickets at the start and end of the innings, so he’s done well there," explained Watkin. "Part of T20 is getting out the best players and he’s come to the party when required.
“Prem’s done really well this year. He’s bowled a lot in the powerplay and middle overs with his left-arm spin, and at the death when required so he’s bowled excellently all year.”
Despite plenty of players being used over the course of the season, a group of players began to form the crux of the side with their performances and character during the campaign.
“It is a young core but it is a 2nd XI so you expect a young core to have enthusiasm and motivation. It’s quite an experienced 2nd XI in a way, so we’ve been lucky enough to have all staffed teams so we’ve had that as an advantage.
“Any team would tell you that you keep the same processes going into big games. The nature of T20 is that it varies a lot from game-to-game, so we’ll take a look at the wicket on the day. We’ll have a certain number of players there, and the team almost picks itself for that semi-final.
“It’s about the execution and performing well – fielding well, batting well, striking well when required, like we did in the group games.”
Nottinghamshire finished top of the North group, with 10 wins and only two losses, with players like Ben Slater (277 runs @ 46.16) and Matt Carter (12 wickets @ 23.66) leading the way for the Trent Bridge outfit.
How did the 2nd XI reach Finals Day?
The season started off with narrow back-to-back defeats against Sussex sides that contained Luke Wright, Harry Finch, Reece Topley and Tymal Mills, before the side bounced back quickly by defeating Somerset at Newport in both games in their double-header match-up. A four-wicket win in Chris Cooke’s comeback game from injury was followed by a 26-run victory thanks to Owen Morgan’s 54 and Callum Taylor’s undefeated 40.
A double-header against Gloucestershire at Llandaff School followed, as Colin Ingram hit 48 in his first game back in English conditions as the hosts compiled 158/5 before Glamorgan restricted the visitors to 110/9, thanks to Owen Morgan (4-2-7-2) and Kazi Szymanski (3-1-8-3). The second game saw the Glamorgan spinners quartet of Prem Sisodiya, Andrew Salter, Morgan and Taylor combine for 15-1-74-7, laying the platform for Jeremy Lawlor (59*) and Connor Brown (47) to dominate as Glamorgan chased down the 122 needed with 13 balls and six wickets to spare.
Two close encounters at Spytty Park against Kent followed, with Lawlor (48), Billy Root (47) and Dan Douthwaite (33) taking Glamorgan to 162/7 before Carey (4-0-24-2) led bowling efforts in a six-run victory. Joe Cooke (53) and Morgan (55*) helped Glamorgan chase 168 in the second game, with Craig Meschede (2-19) and Marchant de Lange (2-17) restricting the visitors in the first innings.
After a pair of defeats against strong Hampshire sides that included James Vince, Sam Northeast, Liam Dawson and Aneurin Donald, the 2nd XI capped off the campaign with two victories over the MCC Young Cricketers. In the first game the side defended 158 with ease, winning by 30 runs thanks to Szymanski (2-18) in particular, before the second game saw Nick Selman smash 62 and Tom Cullen launch his way to 78 off 50, with MCCYC falling 62-runs short of the 190 runs required for victory thanks to birthday boy Ruaidhri Smith’s 5/18 from his four overs.